Pinithwai
by Colletine
Summary: When a man and his wife lose their way in the desert and come across a tribal village it seems like their whole world is about to collapse.


Chapter 1- A Wrong Turn  
  
Joe raised the binoculars to his eyes and looked out over the isolated desert. It stretched for miles and there seemed to be no other life around. His fingers pulled down his sunglasses awkwardly from his forehead. "See anything?" called Amy his wife, from the stationary land rover. She had a map opened out on the bonnet and she was trying hard to keep her skin from touching the burning metal. "Nothing but damn sand for miles" Joe answered, "I can't see anything that we could use as a landmark, its useless. We're lost" Amy looked at the map with a puzzled look on her face, "I just don't understand" she said, "We followed all the directions correctly" "Well obviously we didn't" frowned Joe, shoving the binoculars back into their leather case, "We must have taken a wrong turn at some point" Scratching her head Amy nodded, "Well I suppose we should retrace ourselves, see where we went wrong?" "It's Tony's fault" muttered Joe shaking his head and putting out his hand for the sheet of directions, "Let me see" Amy handed him a roughly folded piece of paper, with untidy writing scrawled across it in black ink. She remembered her son hastily writing it yesterday before handing it to her and rushing out of the door muttering something about missing his plane. "I'm surprised you could make out any of this" Joe said squinting at the paper, "It's a mess" Amy turned back to the map, "Hmm which way did we turn here" she asked curiously and pointing at a crossroad on the map. "Right, I think" answered Joe, looking up from the piece of paper, "Why?" "Are you sure?" Amy said dubiously, "I could have sworn." "No we definitely went right," said Joe looking over her shoulder at the map. "Well that should have led us here" Amy said pointing to a dark square shape on the map, "To Pinithwai" "Pinithwai? Never heard of it," Joe said shaking his head. "Well you know these silly town names they have around here" Amy said, shrugging her shoulders, "I think we should try and find it, I don't like the idea of sleeping out here" "What in the desert?" Joe chuckled, "There's no one around for miles" "But still." said Amy looking around anxiously. Joe nodded his head. He had learnt from experience to obey what his wife said. Plus they were both exasperated as it was. "Ok then" he said pulling open the car door, accidentally burning his hand on the scorching metal, "Lets go" He slipped lazily into the drivers seat and started the engine with a roar. He revved it at Amy who was still pouring over the map on the bonnet. It took her a few seconds before she looked up and through the windscreen at Joe. She could feel the car vibrating through her fingertips. Joe beckoned at her with his hand and mouthed "Hurry up". She sighed and slowly folded up the map. Sucking in a long breath she turned and took one last look at the empty desert, before slipping slowly into the passenger seat and into the cool haven of the air-conditioned car. Joe looked over his shoulder and reversed back onto the main road, which they had turned off and headed back they way they had come. Amy opened out the map on her knee, "This Pinithwai place" she said, "I wonder what its like" "Probably some native town" Joe laughed, "and I bet they don't have cable" "Don't be ridiculous Joe" Amy said shaking her head. She paused for a moment and then looked closer at the map, "There's another one of these towns around here, I-po-lûs" she said slowly "Ipolûs?" Joe said, "Who thinks up these names?" Amy slammed the map down onto her knee. "Can you just be serious about this? For once in your life?" "I was being serious" Joe said crossly. The whole trip was beginning to annoy him. They were only supposed to be visiting their son, on his first excavation and so far they hadn't even reached his dig site. "Hey what's that?" asked Amy suddenly. Joe squinted his eyes and looked into the distance. "Looks like a turnoff" he said looking at Amy. "But it wasn't there before" she said confused, "This was a straight road, with no turnoffs" She fumbled at the map, scanning it for the turn off. "Yeah, all right we all make mistakes Amy" Joe said smiling to himself. "But there was no turnoff before" she insisted "So your saying it just appeared out of no where?" Joe said as they approached the turnoff. Amy didn't say anything. It was clear as ever on the map. "So there you go" sighed Joe, "That's because it was always there. Well I guess we're on the right tracks now" he said as he swerved recklessly into the turnoff. Amy gripped the hand rest. "Stop it" she cried, gasping, "You're going to kill us" Joe slowed the car to a stop. "Do you want to drive?" he asked her sternly. "I only meant." Amy began, but Joe wasn't listening. His attention had turned to a mysterious outline in the distance. It looked almost like a person. He clumsily reached for the binoculars and tore them out of their case. "What's going on?" Amy asked nervously. "Shush" said Joe looking through the binoculars. He paused for a brief moment and then spoke. "I can see a man. Heading this way. He doesn't look too good" "What's he doing walking around in the desert" exclaimed Amy, "Only an idiot would do a thing like that? It's certain death. I think we should pick him up" Joe didn't answer. He was growing slightly anxious about the man. He had heard all the stories about strange hitchhikers from his friends before he came. He expected that they were just joking around and trying to scare him, but now he wasn't so sure. "I expect he's dehydrated" Amy went on, "We really should check to see if he's ok, lets drive up to him" she took the binoculars off Joe and he started the engine hesitantly. They drove slowly up to the man, whom Joe could now see looked only about 20 years old. He had dark tanned skin on his arms and legs but his face was pasty and dry. When he walked, he staggered. It looked strenuous for him to even breath. Joe slowed the car beside him. "Hey" he said to the man, "Are you alright there?" The man continued to stagger as if he couldn't hear anyone. He was clearly in a state of delusion. Joe got out of the car and tried again, "Are you ok?" The man still didn't answer and carried on walking. Joe put his hand onto the mans shoulder and to his horror the man let out a blood curdling scream and dropped to his knees. He rested his head in his hands. In a state of disarray Joe spoke once more, "Are you alright?" The man looked up at Joe. It was clear that his vision was blurred as his eyes fluttered around as he looked at Joe. "Pelor ut meon dessas" the man muttered, "Pelor fen bans iysel" "I don't understand you" Joe said, kneeling down next to the man, "Do you speak English?" The man shook his head in confusion and muttered one last word before collapsing onto the dusty road, "Pinithwai" "What happened?" asked Amy coming up behind him "Is he.dead?" "No, he still has a pulse" Joe said resting his two fingers on the man's wrist, "Help me get him into the car" "We're taking him with us?" exclaimed Amy "We can't just leave him here like this" Realising he was probably right, Amy sighed and nodded.  
  
* * *  
  
Within ten minutes, they had lifted the man into the car. He was still unconscious and so they had laid him across the back seat, his head resting on Joe's jacket. They drove to the end of the long road in about 2 hours. The sun was slowly going down and darkness was falling upon the desert. Soon the sky was completely black and even with the help of the headlights Joe still couldn't make out the outline of the road and so they decided to stop where they were and to continue the next morning. Amy looked at the unconscious man anxiously and nudged Joe. "What if he wakes?" "Then he wakes," said Joe shrugging his shoulders. "What if he tries to.?" "He wont" said Joe closing his eyes and resting his head on the window, "The poor guy couldn't even walk before, what makes you think he has enough strength to do anything to us?"  
  
* * *  
  
Amy awoke the next morning just before sunrise. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. Next to her, Joe began to stir. He shivered instinctively and ran his fingers through his hair. He looked at Amy. Her mouth was open wide and she was staring straight ahead. Last night they hadn't realised, they were already where they wanted to be. The rising sunlight fell upon the beauteous Pinithwai. Behind it marked the end of the desert and there was a huge jungle, bursting with infinite green with the sound of birds. Pinithwai looked like a village. There were lots of small wooden huts with intricate designs carved up the main beams. The huts had no doors, or any glass in the windows, instead small drapes of a thin material hung in their place. The huts were scattered around in no particular order but with one larger hut at the centre of the village that was more elegant than the rest. It had carved wooden pillars to each of its sides and had a thicker and intricately embroidered material at the door. Around and about there were certain stalls and carts; it looked like some sort of a market. There was a burnt out campfire below a spit, with the remnants of what looked like a pig on it. Everything about the village was beautiful. However there was something missing. Joe became quickly aware of what it was. A young boy sprang from of one of the huts with an ivory horn. He wore nothing but a cloth that wrapped around his stomach and came down to just above his knees. He wore a necklace around his neck with a brown amulet attached to the end and his wrists and ankles were covered in bracelets made from large white and black beads. The boy sucked in a long breath and blew hard into the horn. The sound was incredible. It was a deafening low rumble and Joe could feel it vibrating through the car. Almost immediately people started to appear from the huts.  
  
Completion of Chapter one is strictly © Copyright. All names are ®Trademarks of the International CV Cook Company. 


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